10 Pickup Lines that Did Not Work for Travis Stoll
by HecateA
Summary: He tried, he failed.  Multiple times.  Oneshot.


**Dedication: Okay, so this is a birthday story for Nala Jackson-Wayland-Lightwood-Herondale-Hawthorne-hopefully-I'm-not-missing-one. Happy birthday! She gave me permission to put this on the Internet because she thinks it's good/edited enough and that others would find enjoyment in it. Hopefully you all do!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Percy Jackson, the Camp, any of the two characters, and some of these pick-up lines I got off the Internet because they were too funny/cutely lame to _not _be said to Katie. **

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><p><strong>10 Pick-up Lines that Did Not Work for Travis Stoll<strong>

1) Katie was humming. She'd been up on a line all day, picking apples, which was already a good thing for the daughter of Demeter. And she knew that the harpies would be able to make something good and decently homemade with the fruit- and by the gods, if _they _couldn't, she'd do it herself.

It was a good day. It reminded her of home on the farm, how there was an apple orchard nearby and she used to always be invited in the fall to come help pick them, or the crab apple tree in the yard.

Suddenly a face appeared through the greenery in the tree and she saw Travis Stoll's ratty little face, with the sly smile and sneaky eyes that pegged most half-bloods as 'troublemakers'.

"Travis, what are you doing here?" Katie asked him. He held out an apple.

"You're the apple of my eye," he said.

_"Mmm, I don't think so." Katie said taking the apple from his hand and dropping it in a basket she held at her hip._

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><p><em>2) <em>She ran into Will on her way out of the hotel's laundry service.

"Will, I was just coming to give you these." Katie said handing him off the basket of washed bandages.

"Oh, thanks." He said. Will Solace looked _exhausted. _Partially from being the head medic of Camp right now (which included running up and down staircases, and ridding elevators, and sprinting down hallways to the various sick rooms and making sure everyone was okay), partially because he'd just fought a war.

"You're doing good Will," Katie said, putting a hand on his shoulder. He sighed.

"If you say so, Kates." He said. "I have to go change the bandage on Nyssa now, her stomach would've spilled out if I'd have been a second more. Then Annabeth, who's probably still got some of that poison in her. Then Sherman who kept fighting and made his initial injury worst. And the Hunter on the fifth floor who only just accepted male help. And…"

"Don't stress it Will," she said. He smiled weakly, and disappeared to an elevator, yelling at Drew to hold it open for him.

When Katie spun around, on her way to see if she had to restock anything in the buffet her cabin had set up, she saw the Stolls were back.

"Done raiding candy stores in the middle of a war, are you?" Katie told Travis as the rest of the Hermes cabin snuck past them to the staircase. Travis grinned at her and took candy out of his pocket.

"Want one?"

"No thanks," Katie said. "Washing blood out of bandages makes me lose my appetite."

But Travis stuffed candy in her hand anyways, and she looked down at it. A sweet note.

_I LOVE YOU_

_"I'm sure you do," Katie said before turning around._

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><p><em>3)<em> The Demeter cabin was always early for the camp fire. Usually they were there even before the camp fire was lit, just as Argus was piling up wood. Mostly because of all the little kids in it, who took time to move anywhere, get dressed and of course 'Katie I have to go pee'.

Katie made sure her cabin wasn't late by bringing at least _them_ in early, and letting the older kids come in with Miranda later.

The little kids were off with Argus, who was demonstrating to them how to build a fire (as long as he didn't let them around matches, Katie was fine with that) when, for some reason that may or may not be illicit, cabin 11 was there early.

"Hey Katie," Travis called to her from the other side of the fire pit. "You know a thing I like about you?"

"My protective sisterly instincts?" Katie tried thinking 'if he brings up…'

"No, it's that the camp fire isn't even lit yet, and you're already hot."

_"Yeah," Katie said. "And you didn't even have sword fighting today and your face already looks like it's been smashed in."_

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><p><em>4) <em>The older campers (14A) were gathered in the Big House to watch a movie. Mr D allowed it when they said they were watching 'Troy' or 'Clash of the Titans' (as long as it was the original) or other Greek Myth related movies. He called it his 'contribution to you brats' education'. Usually he'd leave after the opening theme song and they'd switch to something that was totally rated M.

Tonight, someone who had come in from the city had brought what was apparently the 'scariest movie of the year'. Today, Mr D didn't even bother showing up and so they got settled in, sprawled on the floor and couch and some child of Hecate chose to hang by the ceiling.

"You know; if you get scared and need something to hold, my hand is right there. It's also acceptable for you to cower and hide your face in my shoulder." Travis said.

_Katie went to sit next to Annabeth._

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><p><em>5) <em>"Hey Katie, long time no see, where've you been?" Travis said as Katie crossed the border. She'd basically _walked _from JFK airport where her plane had dropped her off, after the first cab driver turned out to be a Manticore, and a skeleton had mugged her of all drachmas because _something _was up with the city's mythological life. Plus Miranda had called her that week, so she knew very well that she'd be stepping back into the Demeter Cabin while it was at a chicken pox epidemic. Needless to say; she was not in the mood.

"I spent a week on the farm," she told Travis.

"Is that your favourite place in the world?" Travis asked, which was a surprisingly deep question from his shallow mind.

"Maybe." Katie said, more than ready to shake him off.

"Cool. Mine is right next to you." Travis said.

_"Shame you don't go there very often," Katie said._

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><p><em>6) <em>"So other than the Athena and Ares dilemma, and the Aphrodite Ares dilemma, as well as the Ares Hephaestus and Ares Poseidon dilemma, are there any problems worth bringing up?" Chiron asked at the counsellor meeting.

"Yeah, actually," Travis said. Everyone turned to him. Usually the Hermes cabin sat tight and tended to melt into the wall because they created many of the problems highlighted in meetings.

"I just noticed that Katie has a really hard time confessing her love for me."

Katie took a deep breath not to yell. _Don't yell Katie, don't yell..._ She replayed in her mind.

_"I'm so sorry about that Travis," she said. "See, I'm just a really bad liar."_

* * *

><p><em>7) <em>Holding onto the rocks so tight that her knuckled turned white, Katie was higher on the climbing wall than she'd ever been.

_Don't fall, don't fall, don't fall… _She repeated like a chant in her head.

Suddenly the climbing wall started shaking and shaking and the lava poured down. Someone scrambled down and stepped on Katie's hand. She lost her grip on the other stone, didn't catch herself quick enough and fell back.

She screamed but managed to twist herself and land decently. Decently enough not to break or twist or rip anything.

She heard someone make disapproving 'tuh-tuh-tuh' sounds. She turned around, half of her mind already conscient of who it was; and sure enough, there was Travis Stoll.

_"Katie, Katie, Katie." He said. "You can fall from the climbing wall, you can fall from a tree; but the best way to fall is in love with me."_

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><p><em>8) <em>The counsellors were waiting for Chiron to arrive since he was busy with something-or-other. Most likely 'other'. Everyone was keeping themselves busy- Butch was abusing of Clovis' heavy sleep (again), Connor was helping, Lou Ellen was causing books to fly around, flapping their pages like wings, Annabeth was showing an uninterested Percy something on Daedalus' laptop, Clarisse and Will were arguing… Katie rather read a letter from home, so she sat tight on her chair around the Ping-Pong table.

"Katie?" Travis asked. Katie turned around to see him sitting next to her, _not _up to mischief.

"Yes Travis?" She asked trying not to sound suspicious.

"Tennessee is a farming state, right?"

"Yes, they have a good agricultural market there. Why?" Katie asked.

"Because, I know you're from one of those, and I was wondering if you were from Tennessee. Because you're the only ten I see." Travis said, with a look that was probably supposed to be attractive and not just stupid and silly.

_"I'm from Kansas," Katie said shortly before getting up to try to coax Butch and Connor away from poor Clovis._

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><p><em>9) <em>Katie and Will were already in the infirmary by the time the Stolls showed up. Katie was getting her little sister –a really little sister, Cassie, about eight years old- treated for sunburn. Travis froze in the doorframe.

"Dude, you need to go in and pretend my leg is broken," Connor whispered in his ear. "It's part of the plan, come on."

"Actually, pretend I'm the broken-legged one." Travis said, holding a leg up as if he couldn't put weight on it.

"What?"

"Do it, bro!" Travis insisted. Connor rolled his eyes but put Travis' arm over his shoulder and held his brother up.

"Yo, I need help with Travis!" Connor said. Travis just made the sounds of someone in pain.

Katie and Will looked up.

"Good gods, what happened to you?" Will asked.

"Climbing wall- satyr- Cyclops- all a blur…" Travis said, pretending to lock his jaw from pain in between words.

"It's his leg," Connor said.

"Lie him down on that bed," said Will, gesturing towards a free bed, his fingers covered in whatever ointment Cassie was getting on her arms and face. "Katie, go check how bad it is for me, please."

So Travis obliged and Katie came closer and examined his leg, her fingers gently feeling his leg.

"It doesn't feel broken," Katie said. "But you should check anyways, Will, maybe it's just dislocated and I can't feel it."

"Katie…" Travis said weakly.

"What is it, Travis?" She asked ever patient.

"Can you kiss it all better?" Travis asked trying to be pitiful. Katie's eyebrows dropped.

_"Actually Will, never mind, this idiot's fine." She said._

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><p><em>10) <em>"You look down today," Katie said, watching Travis lace his greaves, sitting on a bench next to her. Thank gods Katie _liked _sword fighting. If not, she wouldn't be able to stand sharing an activity with the Hermes cabin.

"Yeah, I lost a bet." He said.

"Really? Gambling's a nasty thing. What was the best about?" Katie asked.

"I betted Chris ten drachmas I could find someone more beautiful than you… And I lost." Travis said.

* * *

><p><span>1 Pick-up Line that <span>_Did _Work for Travis Stoll

Okay, so he'd been through every single pick-up line in the history of humanity. That's when, while spending some acutely boring time as a plant, it had hit him.

Inspiration. God-given inspiration. Katie wasn't _all _human, so he'd have to adapt his pick-up lines for not-entirely-human-but-hot girls.

He found Katie in the strawberry fields (shocking), walking around with a pail of compost (which she'd once told him Cabin 4 kept behind their cabin) and a little spade to scoop it onto the plants. The other satyrs weren't around yet, nor were the kids from cabin 12 or 4.

And so Travis walked closer and waited for her to notice. She was kneeling in the dirt, her hair tied up in a high ponytail, pulled back from her face. She was wearing a tank top showing off her farmer's tan and shorts since it really was one of those particularly hot days; the kind where only bacon or other things damned to be fried dared to venture outside much (or should).

He watched her for a second and eventually she got up, whipping sweat off her forehead. Then she finally looked at him.

"Travis? What are you doing here, why are you staring at me?"

"Oh, nothing," he said. "I was just wondering if it hurt when Hera threw you off Olympus."

Come on. That was a winner. That was _the best_ pick-up line ever.

Katie just groaned in frustration and threw her spade to the ground.

"That's it Travis Stoll, I am beyond sick of you and your stupid pick-up lines!" She said, as close to a yell as he'd ever heard from the daughter of Demeter. It was kind of scary, but attractive at the same time. Travis figured that his inability to find a difference between the two would get him killed one day, maybe sooner than later.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry- maybe that 'taste the rainbow' one was a bit inappropriate around young children but-"

"That's not it." Katie said. "It's not one of them, or two, or three, it's _all _of them! When will you get that if you want to impress a girl you don't have to find a stupid pick-up line amongst the repertoire of your cabin, you just have to man up, look me in the eyes and do something!"

"I do?" Travis asked.

"Yes." Katie snapped, "you sort of _do._"

"Hey, you said 'look _me _in the eyes' right there." Travis noticed. Katie's eyes sprawled.

"No I didn't."

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't."

"Well I'm going to 'man up' and 'do something' anyways." Travis said. He took step forwards and kissed her. At first it was just a kiss, and for a second Travis thought 'well, she'll probably solve her hatred of my pick-up lines by killing me' but then Katie kissed him back. It nearly threw off all of his senses and the mind activity camp liked to pretend he didn't have, but somehow Katie was anchoring him to the real world, just her standing there, kissing him, the smell of dirt and strawberries… He held her by the waist, and her arms looped around his neck, her dirt-covered fingers playing with his hair.

And when Katie finally pulled back to make sure nobody had seen that, the only thing Travis could think was;_ boy do those demigod pick-up lines work… _


End file.
